Brute womanhood brings machismo to a boil

Those who succeed in her current line of work have sex-appeal. They are often solicited for their prowess, and on a good weekend they make a killing. They spend a great deal of their pay on clothing, dressing for work in the tightest, flashiest outfits av ailable. They are entertainers, and their job is to meet brutish partners for short-lived encounters that can be violent.

There are no insurance plans to cover them, no health benefits. But they're accustomed to danger, having graduated from the school of hard knocks. Above all, they have mastered certain "tricks" of their trade which clearly set them apart from most women.

Cristina Sanchez' trade, as you might have guessed, is bullfighting. It's not the oldest profession in the world, but it's certainly nothing new. Among people of Iberian heritage, bullfighting has been considered a pinnacle of manhood since medieval times . It was tied so exclusively to manliness that the female bullfighter seemed unthinkable. Chances are your own guess at Cristina's occupation did not place her in the bullring.

Actually, female bullfighters were never entirely unheard of in Spain, but they've been historically repressed. Francisco Franco, the late dictator, hoped to be remembered as the manliest man ever. Finding female bullfighters thinkable but repugnant, he o utlawed them.

Cristina Sanchez is the first Spanish woman to outlive Franco's edict. She's a beautiful woman by anyone's standards, curvaceous and strong, a femme fatale in the literal sense: killer of half-ton bulls. Her novelty has revived the cult of bullfighting af icionados everywhere, putting red capes and long swords back on little boys'(and now girls') Christmas lists. She is no kinder or gentler in the ring than her colleagues, and thus, she's the first real matador(a) sin cojones. (i.e. without testicles).

In his glossary of bullfighting terms, Ernest Hemingway says that valorous bullfighters possess cojones, and "In the cowardly bullfighter they are absent." Was Hemingway wrong about cojones, the pendular pre-requisites to brave bullfighting?

Hemingway also wrote, "If you are a woman (at a bullfight) you might be badly affected by it. Do not sit any closer than the gallery." Cristina Sanchez gets considerably closer, and she's got scars to show for it. She has survived two gorings in the groin and one in the stomach. But given her prolific schedule of corridas, and the controversy surrounding her name, she's proven resilient to bullying, both in the ring and out. She's already won accreditation as a matador in Madrid's La Venta ring, the venuee that, according to Hemingway, separates the men from the boys in bullfighting.

No other writer appeals to machismo like Hemingway, (who was himself emasculated through rejection from the military and chronic impotence). He extols the pleasures and perils of manhood, setting them sharply against a trademarked, fickle womanhood. In He mingway, the battle is central to machismo. There's the fish-battle, the boxing match, the cock-fight, the arm-wrestling bout, the artillery skirmish, the ideological war, and the corrida de toros, most manly of all.

Hemingway's books are timeless classics, but we recognize that their machismo is passe. Hemingway must be rolling in his grave (he killed himself in 1961) in light of this "broad in the ring" craze. But before the feminists begin dancing in the streets, o r running with the bulls, let me tell you why women really should stay out of the bullring.

Years ago I saw a common man gored to death by a bull with its horns set on fire. It was at a festival in a tiny Spanish village, a small-scale Running of the Bulls. This poor soul had let himself be cornered. The bull caught him under the rib cage, throw ing him effortlessly onto the street where he bled to death. The disemboweling disturbed me, and I've avoided bullfights ever since. I agreed with most Spaniards of my age that bullfighting was a repulsive spectacle.

It is not for lack of competence, wherewithal, or cajones that women should stay out of the ring. It's because there is no need to breathe life back into this sport. Bullfighting itself is passe, a deplorable spectacle. The sport was staggering like a con demned bull before Cristina began to flaunt her tight traje de luces in the public spectrum.

Before Cristina, a new generation of cosmopolitan Spaniards had no interest in bullfighting. It seemed ready to fall, along with the last of Franco's ole' boys who remained aficionados.

Cristina has commented that gender has no bearing on bullfighting. (When one critic asked "why don't you fight cows?" she clarified that she meant the gender of the bullfighter). However, she laments, "men come to see my panties." Or, "Men come to see me get gored." If Hemingway were alive, you can bet these are the reasons he would go to see Cristina Sanchez fight.

Neither the machismo nor the bloodthirst of bullfighting will be curbed by women bullfighters. On the contrary, they will only bring these perversions to a boil. It is best to let the old fraternity of aficionados wither. Old habits die hard, but if they aren't encouraged they do eventually die. Matadors and bulls, on the other hand, die easily and needlessly. Women should not encourage bullfighting, and men have no reason to resist its downfall. I promise, we can keep our cojones.

Josh Schneyer is a non-degree seeking graduate student